Film Review: LILITH, USA, Sci-Fi/Drama

LILITH is a nineteen minute American Science-fiction drama directed by David Odio. Set is terrifying dystopian world where beautiful women are held as trinket commodities in captivity and taught only one decorative skill, LILITH tells the story of one such woman who bucks the broken system. Though it costs her dearly, her break with the world of patriarchal society will set her free.

Dark and sinister with its undertones, LILITH is a film that takes real issues in society and distills them down through a nearly fantastical lense of science-fiction. Sexism in it’s most extreme is showcased in LILITH, as a way to hold up a mirror to modern-day inequality. We can be entertained safely by such films, because they are so much more hyperbolic than our own world…or are they?

Truly well-made science-fiction asks us to think about our world in relation to the world the story tells. The world Lilith comes from is dangerous, gritty and horribly defeatist for any female- doomed to a short life lived as a sex doll of s service provider for the dominate male class. What does LILITH say as a film? It asks us to examine how different or how similar its’ world is from our own- are we frighteningly close to the world our heroine comes from?

But within every dystopia, there is cause for hope. And there is no lack of hope in LILITH. For within the titular character lies a grit and determination that she follows to the extreme- and it leads her to brighter tomorrow.

A sharp, deep, dark and compelling rollercoaster of social commentary on our world, LILITH is a powerful film indeed.

Review by Kierston Drier

Film played at the 2018 FANTASY/SCI-FI Film Festival on Valentine’s Day in downtown Toronto, Canada

Set in a gritty, dystopian society, women are collected as commodities and taught only one designated skill. When a young girl named Lilith defies the system, her curiosity challenges the patriarchal rule and the city’s way of life.